Can You Solve This Maths Question Given To 10 Year Olds?

British TV host Anna Botting posted this maths puzzle to Twitter. The question was set for her 10-year-old child; however, it stumped Botting as well as many other Twitter users. Can you solve it?

There are 5 times as many pens in box A than box B.

Tom moves 76 pens from box A to box B.

Both boxes now have the same number of pens.

How many pens are in box A now?

Scroll down for a clue and further down for the answer.

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Clue: Put the information in the question into an equation.

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Answer: 114 pens.

Let A = the number of pens in box A and let B = the number of pens in box B.

A = 5B

A – 76 = B + 76

Now, solving this equation for B:

A = B + 152

As we know A = 5B, we can substitute this into the equation so it becomes:

5B = B + 152

4B = 152

So, B = 38 This was the original number of pens in box B.

The original number of pens in box A was 5 x 38 = 190.

After 76 pens were moved, both boxes contained 114 pens.

The Mystery 9-Letter Word

Begin at a corner and go clockwise around the perimeter, finishing at the central square. Your challenge is to fill in the missing letters to spell out a 9-letter word.

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Clue: You need to begin in the top-right corner.

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Answer: CHEMISTRY

An Impossible Rebus

Today’s puzzle, pictured above, is a challenging rebus (I recommend looking at the clue!). The answer has 5 letters in the first word and 8 letters in the second word.

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Clue: You need to find a one word anagram of the letters in the rebus.

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Answer: MIXED EMOTIONS.

The letters ‘TIME SOON’ can be mixed to form the word ‘EMOTIONS’.

A Curious Rebus Puzzle

Can you solve the above rebus puzzle? The number of letters in each word of the answer are: 2, 3, 4, 5, 2.

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Clue: The left side of the scale has ‘no two’.

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Answer: No two ways about it.

A Cryptarithmetic Puzzle

In the above cryptarithmetic puzzle, which reads PIE x PIE = FRUIT, each letter represents a different digit. Can you solve the puzzle and work out which digit each letter represents?

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Clue: E = 4.

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Answer:

R = 0, P = 1, U = 2, F = 3, E = 4, T = 6 and I = 7.

One Image, 54 Cliches

Today’s puzzle was created by Mental Floss, which is an amazing website full of curiosities.

There are 54 cliches depicted in the image below. How many can you find? A larger image can be viewed here.

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Answer:

The upper left hallway:

1. Off one’s rocker

2. The long arm of the law

3. Spill the beans

The upper right room:

4. Out of the blue

5. Two peas in a pod

6. Bite the bullet

7. Handwriting on the wall

8. A square peg in a round hole

9. Chip off the block

The middle room:

10. Lame duck

11. Bury the hatchet

12. Eye on the ball

13. Kick the bucket

14. Back against the wall

15. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours

16. Looking at the world with rose-coloured glasses

17. A dog-eat-dog world

18. Toss one’s cookies

19. Bend over backwards

20. The grass is always greener on the other side

21. Like taking candy from a baby

22. An oldie but a goodie

23. The fifth wheel

The main hallway:

24. A piece of cake

25. Joined at the hip

26. Roll out the red carpet

27. A storm in a teacup

28. Don’t cry over spilled milk

29. Add insult to injury

30. Tooth and nail

The room on the right:

31. The light at the end of the tunnel

32. Don’t have a cow

33. Pie in the sky

34. Red herring

35. An albatross around one’s neck

36. Two left feet

37. With one hand tied behind the back

The front room:

38. A fish out of water

39. A can of worms

40. Egg on one’s face

41. An ace in the hole

42. A foot in the door

43. A horse of a different colour

44. The walls have ears

45. Monkey on one’s back

46. Hold down the fort

47. Wear your heart on your sleeve

The room that can just be seen on the right:

48. On cloud nine

49. The elephant in the room

The bottom right room:

50. Butterflies in the stomach

51. The pot calling the kettle black

52. Nothing up my sleeve

The bottom left room:

53. Let the cat out of the bag

54. As good as gold

Note: there may be multiple valid answers.

A Strange Letter Puzzle

What letters should replace the question marks below?

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Clue: You need to step back and look and this question differently.

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Answer: IC.

When each row is read from left to right, the letters form a word. The missing letters must be ‘IC’ to form the word ‘gothic’.

The Seven Mystery Integers

I have written down seven positive, ordered integers. The integers have a range of 6, a mean of 4, a mode of 1 and a median of 5 (the median only occurs once). What seven integers did I write down?

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Clue: Three of the integers I wrote down were 1s.

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Answer: 1, 1, 1, 5, 6, 7, 7.

A Unique Group of Words

What unique trait do the following words all have in common? When you have worked out the intended answer, you will be in no doubt that you are correct.

HUBS, ABOMA, TRACER, DOMAINS, ANTRUM, AIRHORNS

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Clue: You need to anagram each word.

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Answer: All the words are anagrams of US President surnames.

HUBS = BUSH

ABOMA = OBAMA

TRACER = CARTER

DOMAINS = MADISON

ANTRUM = TRUMAN

AIRHORNS = HARRISON

A 24-Hour Clock

You have a 24-hour digital clock that displays hours, minutes and seconds. Across a 24-hour period, how many times will all six of the clock’s digits change simultaneously?

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Clue: One change occurs when 23:59:59 turns to 00:00:00.

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Answer: Three times.

All six digits will change when:

09:59:59 turns to 10:00:00

19:59:59 turns to 20:00:00

23:59:59 turns to 00:00:00